Pencil holder



United States Patent PENCIL HOLDER Robert F. Van Voorhis, New York, N. Y.

Application February 27, 1956, Serial No. 567,939

1 Claim. (Cl. 120-108) This invention relates generally to a device for holding writing instruments and more particularly to a new and useful improvement in an all-plastic device for holding pencils and the like.

Writing instruments such as pencils and pens often become misplaced on the top of a desk or other supporting surface and when lying down on the supporting surface are diflicult to see and to grasp and when in such position are usually disorderly arranged and un sightly.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a holder for supporting a plurality of pencils in an erect spaced and inclined position from the surface of a desk or elsewhere.

Another object of the invention is to provide a holder for supporting a plurality of pencils in such a manner that each pencil will have its sharpened point well protected.

A further object is to provide a holder of this character wherein the pencils are conveniently supported in an orderly fashion for use and display purposes and are readily accessible for use.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a pencil holder which is capable of holding an advertising or display card in a conspicuous protected position.

It is further proposed to produce a pencil holder which is simple in construction and which can be manufactured and sold at a reasonable cost.

For further comprehension of the objects and advantages of the invention, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing forming a material part of this disclosure and wherein Figure 1 is a top plan view of a pencil holder made in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the base portion of the holder.

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the plane of the line 33 of Figure 1, showing pencils in dot-dash lines in supported position.

Referring to the drawing in detail, the holder made in accordance with my invention is all plastic and is preferably rectangular-shaped in plan. The holder may be molded from such plastics as polystyrene polymers, polyethylene polymers, acrylate resins, vinyl acetate, vinylidene chloride polymers and copolymers. Other types of plastic materials may be used but from the standpoint of attractiveness, non-breakability, availability and expense in manufacture, I prefer to use one of the plastics indicated above. The base portion is opaque and the upper casing 11 is preferably transparent.

Referring to Figure 2, the base 10 is rectangularshaped in plan having an outer continuous vertical wall 12 and an inner continuous vertical wall 13 spaced inwardly therefrom providing a continuous groove 14 between the walls. The floor of the base is of zigzag formation including a vertical wall portion 15 lengthwise of the base midway the front and rear thereof, and a vertical wall portion 16 parallel to wall portion 15 be- 2,848,979 Patented Aug. 26, 1958 tween wall portion 15 and the rear portion of the inner wall 13, terminating short of both ends of the base. A Wall portion 17 extends from the top of the front portion of the inner wall 13 rearwardly and downwardly to the base of the central wall portion 15. A similar slanting wall 18 but more abrupt extends from the top of the central vertical wall 15, and a slanting wall 19 similar in shape and construction to wall 18 extends from the top of vertical wall 16 to the base of the rear portion of the inner wall 13.

A plurality of vertically disposed transverse walls 20 extend across the base from the front to the rear portion of the inner wall portion 13. The transverse walls 20 for one-half the length thereof, at the front of the base, are each formed with opposed sloping surfaces 21, 21 sloping from the top downwardly and laterally in opposed directions. The surfaces 21, 21 taper to a point at the top of the front portion of the wall 13. The transverse walls 20, central wall 15 and bottom wall 17 define open-top pockets 22, and the sloping surfaces of adjacent transverse walls 20 and the sloping bottom walls 17 of the pockets converge to points as indicated at 23 at the rear of the pockets.

Between the longitudinal central wall 15 and the parallel longitudinal wall 16 and between said wall 16 and the rear portion of the inner wall 13, the transverse .walls 20 are formed with sloping surfaces 24 similar to dicated at 26 at the rear of the pockets 25.

Each end portion of the inner wall 13 is formed with an inwardly and rearwardly sloping surface 27 and each end transverse wall 20 is formed with a similar sloping surface 28. The surfaces 27 and 28 with the bottom wall portions 17 define end pockets 29. The sloping walls of the pockets 29 converge to points indicated at 30 at the rear of the pockets.

The casing 11 comprises a front wall 31 curved rearwardly slightly at its top end, a straight rear wall 32 higher than the front wall and straight end walls 33. The top wall has a flat horizontally disposed solid rear portion 34 thicker than the other walls, and continuing into a flat downward and forwardly sloping portion composed of intersecting longitudinally extending and transversely extending bars 35 and 36, respectively, defining openings 37, and terminating in a similarly sloping fiat solid portion 38 which continues into the front portion or front wall of the casing. The intersecting bars 35 and 36 extend downwardly slightly below the inner surface of the front solid portion 38 of the top wall.

At each end of the casing, laterally of the end cross bar 36, a longitudinally extending bar 39 connects said end transverse bar 36 with the adjacent end wall portion of the inner wall 13 thereby defining openings 40 forwardly and rearwardly of said bar 39. The openings 40 are dimensioned larger than the openings 37.

A downwardly extending flange 41 is formed at the juncture of the solid front portion 39 of the top wall and the top of the front wall.

In assembling the holder, the lower edge of the casing 11 is forced into the groove 14 of the base into frictional engagement with the outer wall 12 and inner wall A card 42 may be readily insertable, with its top edge seated in the groove between the flange 41 and the front wall 31 of the casing and with its bottom edge seated in the groove 14 between the inner wall 13 and the front wall 31, in the casing.

In use, a conventional wooden pencil 43 may be readily slipped through one of the openings in the top wall of the casing and into one of the pockets in the base, and its sharpened lead end 44 will slide down the sloping wall portion of the pocket and finally come to rest in the seat 23 or 26. The depending ends of the crisscrossed bars 35 and 36 serve to guide the pencils into the proper pockets in the base.

The seats 23 and 26 in the base for the sharpened lead ends of the pencils are preferably slightly ofiset from the precise center of the openings 37 so as to better provide for an inclined canting of the pencils with their sharpened lead ends seated and protected in said seats, as shown in Figure 3.

The end openings 40 are dimensioned to receive pocket type fountain pens but of course pencils may be also inserted in such pockets. The inner rounded ends of the fountain pens seat in the rear ends of the pockets.

While the holder is illustrated as of rectangular configuration, its shape may of course be varied as desired and obviously it may be made with any desired number of pencil receiving openings.

When the pencils are thus positioned in the holder, they are readily accessible, are visible from all angles, are orderly arranged and may be readily removed for use. Furthermore, the holder is adapted to accommmodate the entire range of pencil sizes.

It will be understood that the holder may be used to advantage in displaying and holding lipstick holders, paint brushes and tools of all kinds having elongated shanks.

It will also be understood that changes in details of construction might be made without departing from the principle of the invention and I desire to be limited only by the state of the prior art and the appended claim.

I claim:

A pencil holder comprising a base portion and a hollow casing supported thereon, said casing having a slanting top wall spaced above the base portion, said top wall having a plurality of spaced intermediate openings and end openings of larger dimensions than the intermediate openings, said base portion having a floor of zigzag formation including vertically disposed longitudinally extending wall portions, and inclined floor portions exending downwardly and rearwardly to the bottom ends of said vertically disposed wall portions, spaced transversely extending wall portions intersecting said vertically disposed longitudinally extending wall portions, said vertically disposed wall portions, transversely disposed wall portions and inclined floor portions defining pockets, below and in line with the intermediate openings in the top wall of the casing and in line with the end openings in said top wall, the meeting edges of the vertically disposed wall portions and inclined floor portions being disposed offset vertically from the center of the intermediate openings in the top wall and from the center of the end openings in said top wall, said meeting edges serving as seats for the sharpened points of conventional wooden pencils inserted through the intermediate openings in said top wall and for the bottom ends of fountain pens inserted through the end openings in said top wall whereby said pencils and fountain pens are adapted to be supported at an angle to the vertical.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,098,897 Gardner June 2, 1914 2,322,797 Fishel June 29, 1943 2,412,938 Amoth Dec. 24, 1946 2,480,686 Aigner Aug. 30, 1949 

